Shantry wins recall for County cup test

JACK Shantry is set to return to the Worcestershire side for today's Royal London One Day Cup clash with Derbyshire (10.30am).

The left-arm seamer was rested for Tuesday's 88-run triumph over Northamptonshire, which helped the County bounce back from an opening defeat to Essex.

Up until the Steelbacks game, 26-year-old Shantry had played in all 25 of Worcestershire's competitive matches this term, impressing with 40 victims in the LV= County Championship and 13 in the NatWest T20 Blast.

Shantry's return will bolster Mitchell's bowling options, but the New Road captain believes the emphasis is on his batsmen to adapt to the 50-over format quickly and concentrate on occupying the crease to allow Worcestershire to pile up competitive totals.

He said: "Coming into this competition on the back of T20, 50 overs seems a hell of a long time.

"In the games we've played so far, batters have not adapted well enough and it's probably closer to the four-day game than T20.

"You've got to try to form partnerships and be prepared to bat long and someone has got to bat through and get those hundreds."

On the prospect of facing Derbyshire today, Mitchell added: "It's an old cliché, but we are taking every game as it comes. That's all we can do really.

"We've got six left including today and we probably need to win four of them and then we'll have a chance of finishing in that top four."

Meanwhile, Mitchell believes it is "a sign of a decent team" that Worcestershire were able to overcome Northants despite being "below par with the bat" at Milton Keynes.

He said: "It was nice to get the victory. I think to be honest we were below par by our standards but we got over the line which is obviously the sign of a decent side.

"I thought it was a 300-pitch. Obviously it is difficult with these 10.30am starts and losing the toss.

"It always does a bit first thing but we lost a few wickets. I thought we threw a few wickets away, a bit too early in the back end of that middle period, and we weren't able to utilise the fielding restrictions towards the end of the innings. With wickets in hand, we could really have pushed for 300-plus."

On his continued good form with the ball, Mitchell, who took 4-19 to wrap up victory against the Steelbacks, added: "It was with a little helping hand from some of the Northants batters, but I'll take a four-for every day of the week!

"A lot of credit has got to go to the three seamers in particular. They bowled very well and built a lot of pressure and fortunately for me I was able to wrap up four wickets again."

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